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Ongoing NC GOP debacle thread

What’s to stop the Supreme Court from just saying racial gerrymandering is legal?
 
DeaconCav06 said:
The Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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LOL. It’s the Supreme Court. They could just rule that it’s unconstitutional. Good luck arguing that the founding fathers didn’t intend for elections to favor white men.
 
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PhDeac said:
LOL. It’s the Supreme Court. They could just rule that it’s unconstitutional. Good luck arguing that the founding fathers didn’t intend for elections to favor white men.
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I don’t think they ever thought of that at all because it never crossed their mind that anybody other than white men would be eligible to vote or hold office.

Putting that aside, the Supreme Court is not going to overturn landmark Civil Rights legislation with decades of precedent in its favor for something as obviously racially motivated as gerrymandering.

The judiciary is about the only part of the government that’s been doing its damn job over the last 2.5 years.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
I don’t think they ever thought of that at all because it never crossed their mind that anybody other than white men would be eligible to vote or hold office.

Putting that aside, the Supreme Court is not going to overturn landmark Civil Rights legislation with decades of precedent in its favor for something as obviously racially motivated as gerrymandering.

The judiciary is about the only part of the government that’s been doing its damn job over the last 2.5 years.
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Except that Trump and the GOP have been busily packing the federal courts (including the Supremes) since 2017 to overturn landmark progressive legislation in many areas. It's been a right-wing dream for decades, and they're close to getting what they want. I think civil rights, voting rights, abortion rights, gay rights, etc. are in more danger than you think. What's to stop these right-wing judges from interpreting the law in their favor? Nothing, really. Also, guys like Kavanaugh know very well who put them on the court, and they have debts to pay. I don't think any landmark progressive rulings are off the table, especially if conservatives can get one or two more Supreme Court justices, and get to keep appointing lower federal judges at a record pace.
 
I think it’s weird to portray the founding fathers as passive participants in a society that restricted that voting rights of anyone who wasn’t a white man.

It’s also weird to assume that the Court wouldn’t strike down the Voting Rights Act after severely restricting it only a few years ago.
 
PhDeac said:
I think it’s weird to portray the founding fathers as passive participants in a society that restricted that voting rights of anyone who wasn’t a white man.

It’s also weird to assume that the Court wouldn’t strike down the Voting Rights Act after severely restricting it only a few years ago.
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They weren’t participants they were the key players.

And by design, judges with lifetime appointments have zero debts to pay.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
They weren’t participants they were the key players.

And by design, judges with lifetime appointments have zero debts to pay.
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Yes, lifetime appointments - in theory - was supposed to make judges nonpartisan and to have "zero debts." That process was corrupted, though, starting in the 1980s and 1990s, and it's been accelerating ever since. Now the Federalist Society recommends partisan, ideological right-wing justices who will follow their ideology, lifetime appointment or not. If Kavanaugh or Gorsuch or any of these more recent appointments broke with the party line and "betrayed" the people who appointed them, there would be hell to pay, and they know it. What lifetime judicial appointments now mean isn't that they will be objective and nonpartisan and have no debts to pay, it now means that one side has a "guaranteed" lifetime vote and voice on the Supreme Court, or lower courts. Like most other things in the federal government, the system has broken down, and is becoming increasingly dysfunctional.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
So how exactly do they pay?
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They pay by making rulings and decisions that consistently favor the people who put them on the bench. Have you read about the Federalist Society and their influence among Republicans and Trump in making appointments to the Supreme Court and federal judiciary? The information has been out there for awhile.
 
Highland Deac said:
They pay by making rulings and decisions that consistently favor the people who put them on the bench. Have you read about the Federalist Society and their influence among Republicans and Trump in making appointments to the Supreme Court and federal judiciary? The information has been out there for awhile.
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I think he means, with a lifetime appointment, what are the consequences if they don’t capitulate to those that got them there. If the ideologues suddenly grow a conscience, what hell do they actually have to pay?
 
So sorry you couldn’t push us towards Talibama status, NC GOP.
 
IamThunderbolt said:
I think he means, with a lifetime appointment, what are the consequences if they don’t capitulate to those that got them there. If the ideologues suddenly grow a conscience, what hell do they actually have to pay?
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This is what I meant.

If Kavanaugh were suddenly to come out in favor of Universal Healthcare and government funded abortions he would face exactly ZERO repercussions. He has a lifetime appointment.

And yes, I’ve read all about the Federalist Society and its push to creating a pipeline of conservative justices.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
This is what I meant.

If Kavanaugh were suddenly to come out in favor of Universal Healthcare and government funded abortions he would face exactly ZERO repercussions. He has a lifetime appointment.

And yes, I’ve read all about the Federalist Society and its push to creating a pipeline of conservative justices.
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Oh, I think the present-day GOP could make his life a living hell if he did so. There are ways to make someone miserable without removing them from office. Endless investigations into personal finances, 24/7 assaults by right-wing media, etc. Can you imagine what Fox News would do to ostracize someone on the Supreme Court who "betrayed" the GOP. To put it another way, what's to stop the modern GOP from waging a years-long vendetta against a SC nominee who turned against them in such a manner? Their sense of ethics? Or morals? Or to face an outraged GOP Trumpite base? I would not want to be Brett Kavanaugh in such a situation, lifetime appointment or no. And I suspect that he knows it, as do all of their other appointees.

At any rate, this doesn't answer the real problem, which is that the Framers original intent for a lifetime appointment has been turned on its ear.
 
Yeah. I’m not sure I understand Cav’s position. Someone like Kavanaugh has built his whole life around his personal and professional relationships in conservative circles. Why would he risk losing those connections by not doing what they installed him to do? You don’t get to the highest office in the land and then crap on everyone who got you there.

And that doesn’t even get into the death threats he would get from the rube base.
 
PhDeac said:
Yeah. I’m not sure I understand Cav’s position. Someone like Kavanaugh has built his whole life around his personal and professional relationships in conservative circles. Why would he risk losing those connections by not doing what they installed him to do? You don’t get to the highest office in the land and then crap on everyone who got you there.

And that doesn’t even get into the death threats he would get from the rube base.
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But you can crap all over them if you believe you’re following the law — which you’ve dedicated your life to doing — because you have a lifetime appointment.

Nobody has any leverage over a Justice in that scenario because they have a lifetime appointment.

The Justice will continue to make $255K a year for the as long as he or she continues to serve.

I’m sure they can just turn off Fox News if their feelings get hurt.
 
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